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Drink?: The New Science of Alcohol and Your Health

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Parts of this was laughable. Long chapters about different ways to talk about alcohol use, just very clumsy kitchen psychology and mundane. a view popular with conservative politicians, that addiction is fun and addicts enjoy getting drunk...." A good way to drink consciously is to count your drinks and plan them for the week. If you know you will be drinking 2 nights in a given week, and then plan to have no more than 4 drinks on each of those nights, you are more likely to not exceed/overdrink. Drinking while driving is a huge cause of death. In the US we have a .08% limit, which is actually not even that safe. Many countries in Europe have .05%, and many in Scandinavia have .02% (basically sober).

Drink? The New Science of Alcohol and Your Health

Drink? holds the key to all the questions you want (and need) to know the answers to, covering mental health, sleep, hormones, fertility and addiction. I didn't realize that in the old days, beer and wine had much less alcohol in them than they do today (3-4% vs 5-8% today for beer). In middle ages I think it was even less, which is why people could drink it so often. Most data are as reliable as the counter argument you hear on TV. Too much reliance on correlations and how alcohol contributes to all the diseases. Very little causation type sources stated. I am particularly amused by the effects alcohol has on our sex hormones. Drinking appears to be something that in our society is part of the “lad culture”. Yet alcohol has been shown to reduce levels of testosterone whilst increasing levels of oestrogen. So much so that if you drink enough, a man can become feminised, developing male breasts, losing muscle mass and facial hair, and seeing reductions in sperm count. Alcohol makes a man less of a man, not more. The irony! Nutt has spent a good part of his career attempting to educate the general public regarding drug and alcohol use. And to consult and lobby government to adopt more rational drug and alcohol policies based on evidence of individual and social harm.Many of us know the feeling of wanting a drink after a stressful day at work or enjoying a Friday evening pint at the pub. Drinking is a part of numerous celebrations, sporting events and bank holidays across the UK and the world. Yet, the 9 billion pounds spent by the UK’s National Health Services and police force on alcohol-related incidents per year are barely discussed. Drink? invites you to question not only the normalcy of these actions in our lives, but how, personally and through policy, we can reduce the harm caused by drinking. Binge drinking, or getting "wasted" is very bad for you, much better to limit how much you do this.

Drink? : The New Science of Alcohol and Your Health

Ultimately, I was satisfied, but it was a bit bland. Maybe it wasn’t the target market. I’ve never been a frequent drinker. In my younger days, maybe something like 4 drinks per week would’ve been common. These days, 1 drink per week is a lot. The author frequently talks about 14+ units per week, so this all felt a little out of touch Nutt helps the reader self-assess the level you may be at, and gives tips and advice for how to limit your drinking, and how to talk to others about their drinking. He also discusses talking to your children about drinking. Tell them: I think that some further information on counterfactual opportunity cost, based on time/money spent related to alcohol, could have been a helpful addition to this book, albeit difficult to acquire overly didactic data on such factors. But sometimes he still spouts a factoid that he doesn't substantiate with a citation. I'd like to see the documentation of these assertions, Professor Nutt! Drinking has become your hobby or the only way you socialize. This often happens with retirees or expats."Also, we only actually like the taste of alcohol and coffee because while being bitter, they're also addictive and pleasurable to the brain. So we find "taste" in otherwise bitter drinks. David Nutt discusses alcohol in the same kind of context that a drug harm reduction NGO would inform about any substance, by framing it as: drinkers should mindfully find the minimum required dosage, for the pleasurable effects they seek. Very interesting to hear about how health risks increase exponentially with overconsumption and an in depth explanation of what actually happens to the brain and its decision making capability. The book also contains insight into the work that goes into shaping government policy around alcohol. The difficulty for politicians to balance their electability vs public health, and the powerful influence of the alcohol industry lobby on the UK parliament’s decision making around these policies (they are really the true pusherman). More expensive booze is probably not better for your body. It often contains congeners which are in effect different types of alcohol and they can (probably) worsen the hangover.

Drink? : The New Science of Alcohol and Health - Google Books

Still: it had good stuff in it, here and there. And if you know nothing about the subject, maybe you can start with this. I also questioned some of his assertions like, "...there are wards full of these kids," while talking about "acute alcoholic hepatitis" in young binge drinkers. Then he goes on to say, "However bingeing is not the reason behind most cases of alcoholic hepatitis...." He also provided no citation regarding the number of kids or the number of wards. There were also some judgmental statements peppered throughout the book. In one instance, Nutt says that he doesn't think people seeing their doctors for hypertension are being asked about their alcohol use, "...perhaps because many doctors drink too much themselves?" If that's not just a judgment, then where's the citation? If alcohol went through food standards testing for toxicity now, you'd only be allowed to have less than a wine glass of alcohol per year." Alcohol is a huge dopamine stimulant, which is in part why it feels so good, and why we might crave it when stressed.

Nutt identifies alcohol as one of the most, if not the most harmful drug (legal or illegal) in common use. The British perspective came through a few times. For instance, in the section, "Major Ways Alcohol Affects Your Length of Life," I had to look up Professor Nutt's reference to Damien Hirst's sharks and cows with regards to Nutt's mention of formaldehyde. However, I was pleased that Professor Nutt was inclusive and did include science references to Asia and Africa along with Europe, the UK, and the USA.

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